Ashara stood quiet with her customary polite small, watching as the newly arrived strawberry blonde engaged in a familial and amusing conversation with the man called Mars. The girl seeemed lively and full of energy, thoguh the raven-haired beauty did blink somewhat when Mars smacked the poor lass atop her head when she made a comment about his taste in apprentices. Still, while such behavior was boorish and inexcusable - hurting a maiden was a crime against all realms of existence, after all - Ashara decided not to intervene, seeing as the two acted as if they were family.

When the question about the bxoes of ore that needed to be moved was brought up however, Ashara stood silent for a short while. [i]Moving crates? What menial labor...[/i] She thought to herself, obviously not the slightest bit interested in this task. Still, this Mars-person had just given her advice on how to start out as an adventurer, and it would be incredibly rude of her to just ignore his suggestion - not to mention, if she helped this girl with the chore, perhaps she could glean some more insight into this village, or perhaps even the world at large. Thus, Ashara smiled and turned to the girl called Corona.

"It would be my pleasure to help such a lovely maiden, please, show me the way and tell me what must be done." She said in a friendly, calm manner as per usual.

Corona would beam, her toothy grin letting Ashara know that despite this place being backwater, at least people seemed to understand the importance of proper dental hygiene. 

[color=f49ac2][b]"Mm! Follow me, then!"[/b][/color] Corona would say, leading Ashara off to the entrance of the mines.

There, they would see workers carrying out massive carts of ore, the likes of which altogether probably amounted to well over a ton. It was a staggering amount of ore of a copper-like hue with specks of black present in it, while another cart was burdened with white crystalline objects which Ashara could tell from a glance hummed with the magic of the land. Pointing to the multitude of carts already laid out with wooden signs attached on the sides in a language Ashara couldn't read, Corona would say: [color=f49ac2][b]"These are the ones bound for my dad's shop. I'll show you where it is,"[/b][/color] the girl said, running over to grab a cart that towered over her body, eyes only barely peeking over the mounds of ore.

Ashara with her strength would find moving these carts an easy feat. Hell, if she wanted to go all out, she could push them all with her tails but...that'd obviously blow some cover. Big time.

The fox thus only looked at the carts with the ore in them. She'd never much been into the ehole manual-labor thing, nor did she know much about mineralogy or mining in gneral, still though... This ore wasn't something she could remember having seen back in YGGDRASIL. Was it a unique type of resource, native to this land only? Perhaps it would be good idea to procure some and bring it back to the Chateau and have someone like Director Graft take a look at it? Or perhaps Lady Kath?  With the librarian's extensive knowledge and vast amount of tomes, surely she could make clear if this was a new, unknown substance or not.

Standing around thinking about this was not getting her anywhere though. So, after watching the young girl with the strawberry hair get behind, and then start pushing one of the labelled carts, Ashara simply did the same. She didn't need to bend her back or make forceful pushes with her legs, instead, rolling the cart and its contents like as if it was a shopping cart inside a mall, standing straight and just moving it forward while holding both hans on it.

She followed the girl, letting her lead the way to their destination.

Corona was impressed watching Ashara move the cart, saying: [color=f49ac2][b]"Wow, you're really strong! No offense, but you didn't look like the muscle-y type. And here I thought I was gonna feel guilty asking you to push these,"[/b][/color] with a toothy grin. She seemed a jovial sort of person, pushing the cart along at a fair pace. It was clear she had more difficulty than Ashara, but managed in her own way. [color=f49ac2][b]"So, where are you from?"[/b][/color]

At the question of where she was from, a thousand thoughts raced through Ashara's head - all the same time, all vying for prominence and priority, all screaming for her to make use of them. Of course, outwardly, she looked as calm and serene as she always did, even while pushing a cart-full-o'-ore along a bumpy, uneven dirt path. Still, the matter at hand was an issue. Lord Rodias has explicitly told them to avoid answering any questions about where they were from, but she couldn't well enough just ignore the girl's inquiry - that would possibly cause either suspiscion or perhaps even more questions. If Lady Kath had been present, she could likely have come up with a clever way to side-stepp or avoid answering the question directly, but sadly, Ashara was nowhere near as smart as the bookworm dragonoid.

Still, she  had to answer with [i]something![/i] Although it was merely moments, the time it took her to come up with what to say felt like an eternity. Eventually, Ashara settled for what was the bare minimum and least informative reply she could possibly give.

"From far, far away..." She said, turning her head to look out over the village and the people as they walked on. She needed to change the subject, or distract this Corona-girl, from further interrogation though, otherwise things could go south real soon, real fast. As such, the fox picked up one of the lumps of ore from her own cart and held it infront of her face for a bit, before putting it back down. "I have never seen this kind of ore before... What is it called, and what do you do with it?" She asked in an attempt to switch the topic.

The girl's eyes absolutely lit up at the prospect of talking about her family's work, especially with the very ore they were carrying. 

[color=f49ac2][b]"This? Its called Amberlyte. Its a kind of ore made out of condensed Terra Ether. The mountains here have especially pure Terra Ether, so the ore comes out super clean. Those little black specks are pockets of normal iron...its kinda like the Terra Ether inhabits the metal and makes it stronger. Its not great for making weapons, but its great for hammers, tools, and armor. Durable as all get out."[/b][/color]

Ashara stifled a small laugh, finding the girl's enthusiasm to be quite charming and cute. Still, [i]amberlyte[/i] huh? Yes, that was indeed not a metal Ashara was familiar with. Perhaps the Chateau could amke use of it somehow? And if what the girl said was true, and the mountains here were rich with this type of ore, it wouldn't be hard for them to start acquiring it themselves...

"I see." Ashara said, momentarily lost in her own thoughts, but then returned to the present. "But, if this ore is so readily available here, how come this village has not become a much larger and more prominent town? With an ample supply of this ore, I would have thought your township could grow quite wealthy?" She asked, tilting her head to the side, while following Corona towards the blacksmith's home.

The girl sighed, looking at the ore. [color=f49ac2][b]"...You'd think that, yeah...local lord that runs us though, he squeezes the ore for everything its worth. About 80% of the profits line his coffers, and the fat bastard can't even bother to protect this place properly. Mars is just about the only real protection we have,"[/b][/color] she lamented, sounding very worried. 

[color=f49ac2][b]"...Scared now that those weirdos are out there. You stay safe on the road if you have to leave, you hear?"[/b][/color]

"Mr. Mars mentioned something about that as well, that there were strange [i]freaks[/i] moving about on the outskirts of your village." Ashara said, less interested in the greed of the local duke and more so in matters that could have direct impact on the settlement within the near future. "Do you know anything about them at all? What they look like? Where they are from? What they want?" She asked.

Scratching the back of her head, Corona thought on it for a moment before saying: [color=f49ac2][b]"Well...Mars is the only one who saw them, aside from the woman they attacked. But he said they have these...weird masks. They look metallic, and they have four pink eyes on them. And he said the one he saw had some blue robes on with a black hood."[/b][/color] 

From Corona's description, Ashara would later be able to find out that such cultists were captured by Mamoru and Gromgard on the night they left. But for now, she was left to her own imagination to picture these "freaks".

As such, Corona's description rang no bells in Ashara's mind for now. The description didn't match up with anything or anyone she knew, nor anything or anyone she had ever seeen. True enough, there were plenty of people who wore masks and blue robes back in YGGDRASIL,  but the compilation of their garb didn't remind the fox of anyone she'd ever seen. Furthemore, if they were attacking the local women of this little hamlet, but hadn't wiped the place out as of yet, they couldn't possibly be that much of a threat. Could they?

"Strange people in strange masks, going after women... How loathesome." Ashara said, her brows lowered and her voice, ableit still calm, was full of contempt. She looked over her cart at Corona. "But if that is the case, a cute girl like you should be extra careful, Miss. Make sure you stay safe and in the company of others." Ashara warned, offering somber smile.

She doubted this little village waif could do much in terms of defending herself, much less against a group of mysterious masked people who had her scared with their mere presence. Hopefully, these goons would stay well enough away for now, until such a point that Lord Rodias decided what to actually do with this sad little settlement and its inhabitants. For now though, she would help Corona push the carts to the smithy.

[i][[Collab with [@The Irish Tree]]][/i]